Tonight I had the pleasure to go out for my friend Chrysti’s 22nd birthday. So around 7PM, I went to wait at the bus stop underneath I-5, scribbling in a journal with a green pen, thinking about how cold it was outside. Once on the bus, squinted eyes to find the place, looking for the WaMu to know when to pull the cord. A text messsage from Irene with further directions came to my aid and I got off the bus, back in the cold. I found the sushi place next to Charlie’s, one I had loitered in front of, months before, during Irene’s 21 run.

Inside was busy and warm. It was nice to find my seat at the table and see everyone there drinks already ordered. After sitting down and settling in, I ordered what turned out to be a lot of food; everyone was splitting an entry and a bunch of sushi whereas I unknowingly ordered just as much for myself alone, haha.

The atmosphere of the place was very diner’esque, nothing fancy, but it was busy and warm inside, steaming the windows slightly. Real inviting given the chill weather outside. So yeah, it was good times with lots of laughs. Particularly fun watching lil’ Val drink sake and Chrysti’s excitement at her sushi selections. Afterward, I bundled back up and we went to the magazine place on Broadway before I caught the bus back to U-District. It was a nice night.

“It’s the weekend,” I happily thought as I laid in bed last night. Now, this doesn’t sound all too remarkable, but for me last night it was like this great relief-sparked epiphany. This feeling doesn’t come too often for me namely because A) I’ve never really liked the idea of longing for the arrival of two days of the week when you also have five perfectly good days to be happy about and B) the weekend usually doesn’t equate less work as half of it involves kung fu practce. But last night, for the first time in a while, I admit I did get that much-celebrated TGIF feeling.

Yesterday after Ryan and I finished our lab early we bummed around my place before meeting up with Greg to see Team America World Police at the Neptune. After enjoying puppet fight scenes we had dinner at Tokyo Garden (hence the tempura sushi entry below). Later that night, Greg, Val, and I went out for a drink at Flowers where the waitress wouldn’t let us have separate tabs and Greg finished my beer, haha. It was a good way to end the week.

Come Together Washington @ Hec Ed – Photo by Anthony

But then there’s all the events before all that. I planning to write (actually I did write but did not post) a whole summary of the last ten days. Like going to Come Together Washington and writing about how viewing the exhibits around the arena felt like we were wading in the center of academia, or about hearing Bill Gates speak or the new sense of pride and admiration I have of this university. I was going to write about Chris’ birthday surprise dinner at Bucca di Beppo’s last Saturday and getting my laptop back from the Apple Store. Then there was section about going home last Sunday and going to mass with my relatives, remembering how involved my family (and extended family) is in the church, and talking with my Dad and a nun in the sacristy about last week’s events. Was going to write about my god-brother’s going away party where I ate some bomb pancit and flan. I think there was a section about going out with Irene, Chrysti, and Val to IHOP the other night for pumpkin pancakes and how my annual pumpkin-obsession has officially begun again. Then there was a little section about how fun it was doing our Securities project and the social engineering success we had after an evening of digging thru discarded admin paperwork. But, it got really long. The end!

Okay to counter ECON 431-anxieties, I just wanna say information architecture is rad, haha. I really enjoy the assigned articles for INFO 440. And this last reading we had left me kinda excited because…er, because I dig organizing information and simply reading about it as a discipline makes me smile. Oh em gee, am I really writing this? So yeah, thought I’d leave tonight’s blog on an academic positive note, like this info-stuff I really enjoy.

As of now, just cooked dinner (yakisoba!), cleaned dishes, and am now doing random things off this ever daunting to do list I’ve got, to the sounds of Baz Lurhman’s Romeo + Juliet. Such beatiful beautiful words. As for tomorrow, will not think any more about Econ studying, was beginning to experience diminishing marginal returns.

So my days are long (10-12 hrs on campus daily) and it kinda sucks not having a roommate to come home to (hi Jules!). What is most bothersome is that I can’t stand to look directly at my to do list because it is downright blinding. But it’s okay. I’m filled with good food, my exam isn’t until 10:30AM, and I have Shakespeare’s brilliance on DVD.